1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to tap dancing shoes, and particularly to a tap shoe with an adjustable tap assembly that facilitates changing taps and can be used to alter the sound of the tap.
2. Description of the Related Art
A tap shoe utilized in tap dancing has a tap attached to the front of the shoe, referred to as the “toe box.” A second tap is attached to the heel of the tap shoe. Tap shoes can be either specialty dance shoes or street shoes with taps attached. Typically the taps are attached to the sole of the shoe using wood screws or nails. In order to have screws adequately hold the tap to the sole of the shoe a thin fiberboard spacer is often glued and tacked to the toe box and the heel.
Unfortunately, vigorous tapping can vibrate the screws loose from the tap shoe. Repeatedly removing taps or adjusting the tightness of the tap to the sole of the shoe can wear out the internal threads in the sole and render the shoe useless for tap dancing. Some tap dancers wrap the screws that hold the taps in place with steel wool or apply a thread locker or adhesive resin to the screws, but this is often a temporary, inadequate remedy.
One of the reasons a tap dancer would tighten or loosen a tap to the sole of their shoes would be to alter the sound that the tap makes when it strikes a dance floor. As stated above, most conventional tap shoes have a fiberboard spacer between the tap and the sole of the tap shoe. Because tone quality is a function of metal on metal, the fiberboard spacer deadens the sound of the tap shoe, making it more difficult to vary the sound of the tap. Various efforts have been made to improve the sound quality, e.g., Japanese Patent No. 2003-228,371, published Aug. 15, 2003, describes providing the tap shoes with microphones. However, none of these efforts have proven entirely satisfactory. Thus, a tap shoe with an adjustable tap assembly solving the aforementioned problems is desired.